What to Expect When You Stop Dieting

For many of us, dieting is all we’ve known for years or even decades. Our lives have been ruled by restrictive eating, intense rules, and temporary solutions. The constant cycle of counting calories, eliminating food groups, and chasing quick results can be exhausting and unsustainable. But what is the alternative? How do we manage to make decisions that will sustain us both physically and mentally? Can we maintain a llifestyle that combines freedom from food anxiety whilst still embracing our health and nutrition? Here’s my take on this.

Diet culture promotes the idea that your worth is tied to your appearance and promotes dieting as a way to achieve a specific body shape or size in order to conform to this idea. It's important to recognize that bodies come in many shapes, sizes and colours. This may be difficult to accept after years of being told the exact opposite and having our thoughts around body image and body acceptance warped.

When we stop dieting, we move away from external rules and restrictions to internal cues and mindful eating. This involves rediscovering your body's hunger and fullness cues, and eating without judgement. Initially, it might be challenging to trust your body's cues and relearn how to listen to its needs. However, with time and practice, it does become easier, and it certainly makes life more enjoyable. As part of our non diet journey it is imperative to change our mindset and question our beliefs. Only when we begin to question our beliefs can we break free from the cycle of dieting.

One of the issues you may encounter in your journey with your weight is emotional eating. You may have been told that emotional eating is a negative behaviour. However, in a non diet approach, emotional eating is recognised as a normal part of being human. It is how we respond to emotional eating that makes the difference. This is also what is missing in most diet plans.

If you would like to talk about this more why not take advantage of my free 20 minute discovery call